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About Me

My day job is doing build and release engineering for Mozilla. I graduated from Toronto's Seneca College with a degree in Software Development in 2009. My spare time involves teaching anything I have learned about systems, programming, media, web development and anything to do with the open web to anyone who want to learn. When I'm not by a computer I'm making films & videos, running, hiking, swimming, playing hockey, walking the dog, cooking or otherwise trying to pack a lot into a busy life.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Checkin

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Haircuts By Children - In Parkdale

This past weekend the art/life project by the Mammalian Diving Reflex folks (www.mammalian.ca) was in my neighbourhood. The kids involved are also from the neighbourhood and my hairdresser was one of the trainers.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Jumping Off Point

Meet my friend missintensity - she's the first flesh and blood, real life friend I have who is starting a videoblog. I'm so fuckin' excited!You are too, you know it. More queer, canadian, feminist, arts and crafty fun coming your way.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Last night when I heard of a friend's partner getting a Chalmers grant I was curious to see who the other recipients for this year were. The Chalmers grants are distributed through the Ontario Arts Council. "Chalmers Professional Development Grants provide financial assistance to individual professional artists and arts professionals so they can reach their next level of artistic or career development."

Here are the results of the 2005 recipients for both professional development and for arts fellowships - I've rearranged the data out of curiousity:

2005 Chalmers Recipients (Male)

Grossman, Ben, Elora, $22,000

Hoolboom, Mike, Toronto, $45,000

Nemerofsky Ramsay, Benny, Toronto, $40,000

Oswald, John, Toronto, $37,800

Pitman, Walter, Toronto, $3,700

Quirt, Brian, Toronto, $24,000

Thomas, Jeffrey, Ottawa, $32,500

Acquaah-Harrison, Kobèna, Toronto, $10,500

Belluz, Scott, Toronto, $7,300

Vaillancourt, Laurent, Hearst, $14,930

Basilières, Michel, Toronto, $18,000

Bendtsen, Tom, Toronto, $12,000

Cockburn, Daniel, Toronto, $25,000

Leonard, Craig, Toronto, $17,000

Lopes, Damian, Barrie, $38,300

Manzano, Jorge, Toronto, $29,000

Monahan, Gordon, Meaford, $25,000

Kumar, Ravi, Mississauga, $6,700

Nandy, Manjusri, Pickering, $5,300

Wilson, Lee, Newmarket, $5,000

419,030 / 20 = average 20,951.50

Highest Grant awarded $45,000

Lowest Grant awarded $3,700

2005 Chalmers Recipients (Female)

Dey, Claudia, Toronto, $14,200

Gibb, Camilla, Toronto, $27,400

Mills, Sonja, Toronto, $28,400

Robertson, Suzanne, Toronto, $25,000

Aplin, Julia, Toronto, $7,500

Johnston, Amanda, Toronto, $9,000

Lochead, Christina, Toronto, $11,200

McDonald, Sheona, Toronto, $11,000

Peerbaye, Soraya, Toronto, $14,500

Such, Jennie, Toronto, $9,000

Bartley, Wende, Toronto, $18,000

Firth-Eagland, Alissa, Brantford, $15,000

Norris, Jude, Toronto, $20,000

Heti, Sheila, Toronto, $34,000

Ivanochko, Sasha, Toronto, $25,000

Phillips, Paulette, Toronto, $15,000

Schogt, Elida, Toronto, $25,000

Valcin, Nadine, Toronto, $16,700

Headley, Charmaine, Toronto, $10,000

Nowacka, Malgorzata, Toronto, $5,500

O'Shea, Meagan, Toronto, $2,250

Tankus, Edith, Toronto, $10,500

Terry, Rebecca Hope, Toronto, $8,750

362,900 / 23 average 15,778.26

Highest Grant awarded $34,000

Lowest Grant awarded $2,250

* one recipient not included (Burchell, D., Toronto, $6,000)

The discrepancy between the male and female recipients was $76,130.00 - I would say the gender scales at the Ontario Arts Council are a bit off balance.

Now - when you think that feminists need a sense of humour, or if you think that this is all just about who was most qualified - please take this into account. This is not about individual discrimination. There are systems in place that keep women down in sweeping gestures. If you look at these numbers and think it's an accident or a coincidence - think about why you would leap to that conclusion.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Going Natural...

30 years of trying to tame this head of curly hair. Hats, products, assorted hair torture - all chasing a dream of straight hair that you can roll out of bed with and never think twice about. I grew up with my grandmother & co. telling me how much people pay in salons for hair like this. As a teenager with long hair i always wore it in a braid or a ponytail to try and straighten it. Very briefly, in a particularily 'femme' phase I would let it loose and have something close to ringlets. My head was a bit crooked though because my hair weighed so damn much. When I came out at 16 I cut it all off and have never had very long hair since. I wish I had the patience to grow it out so I could play around with other hair styles - but this is what happens...

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Let the games begin...

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Panel

A few weeks ago I was on my first panel, at the Q-Me (Queer Media) conference in New York City.

It went really well, I met lots of new people that are interested in videoblogging, and it opened my eyes a little to the potential of queer media on the internet. I still haven't had a chance to spend some time seriously thinking about what my goals and dreams are in the big picture of my own vlog... I need to do this soon. Part of the reason I'm so determined to get to Vloggercon is to be able to talk about these issues with other vloggers. Let's talk about advertising, sponsorship, making a living off doing what you love. Let's talk about access, availability, making this something that anyone can do. Let's talk about who is doing this and why, and who's missing from the picture. I want to teach people how to videoblog, that I know for sure. I want to take up queer space on the internet. I want my voice to be out there - amongst the L Word, Queer as Folk and Rosie Cruises. Someone might benefit from this, and I certainly have benefited greatly from being a part of this community.

Warning - the clip is a bit long - and I say "like" a lot.

If it's not obvious from the clip, I'm blip.tv's biggest fan.

And big thanks to H. for being the videographer... when I come out to california, I'm gonna teach you how to vlog - mark my words.